The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has emerged first in the 2024 National Freedom of Information (FOI) ranking compliance among 245 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) assessed.
This was disclosed during the unveiling of the rankings and 20-page report of the assessment, with the theme, “Mainstreaming Access to Information and Participation in the Public Sector in Nigeria, aimed to promote fiscal transparency and accountability among public institutions in Nigeria’’.
The event was organised by the CSOs cohort comprising Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Right to Know (R2K), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Accountability Lab and BudgIT.
Organisers said it was aimed to promote fiscal transparency and accountability among public institutions in the country.
While the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) emerged second most compliant; Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Bureau of Public
Service Reforms (BPSR) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) took third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
The 245 MDAs were ranked and assigned points based on their level of responsiveness to FOI requests sent by the coalition members and proactive disclosure of relevant information to the public.
Daily Trust reports that former President Goodluck Jonathan 13 years ago in 2011, signed the FOI Act into law to make public records and information more freely available and accessible.
According to the Act, the public institution to which the application was made is expected to make available the information requested within seven days.
The chief executive officer, PPDC, Lucy James Abagi, stressed the need for government agencies to be transparent and answerable to the public, they are meant to serve.
“Public institutions should voluntarily release relevant information and provide timely access to public information for informed decision-making,” she said.
On his part, James Emmanuel, data analyst, ICIR, said the MDAs were ranked based on their proactiveness, level of disclosure and responsiveness to freedom of information requests.
He said that only 1.22 per cent of 245 MDAs were fully proactive during the assessment.
“6.94 per cent of the MDAs were partially proactive, while 91.84 per cent of the MDAs were non-proactive. The three parameters used in the assessment were proactive disclosure, level of responsiveness to requests for information, and level of disclosure,” Emmanuel said.
He said that the total points were 100: 60 points for proactive disclosure, 20 points for level of responsiveness, and 20 points for level of disclosure.
Also, Victoria Etim, programme officer, R2K-Nigeria, said part of the challenges faced during the assessment was an inactive website of some MDAs.
She said, “Basically, we look into government websites to see if they have pertinent information on their website, and we found that a number of the institutions did not have.
“No data from their website, and that has been a huge problem for us in the assessment. We want to encourage the non-performing MDAs to do better next year.”
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